The Netherlands are heading home from the European Championships after an embarrassing display in the 2-0 defeat to the Czech Republic. What is next for the Dutch national team and will the KNVB act?
- By Michael Bell
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It was certainly one of the worst performances I have ever witnessed by the Netherlands in a major tournament. I have lived through Euro 96, the battle of Nuremberg against Portugal, the defeat to Russia in 2008, the Euro 2012 shambles, and even three missed major tournaments.
However, I have not been as disappointed from a Oranje team as I was watching that dismal display against the Czech Republic. What the hell was that?
The first half was dire, and the second half even worse. I know Frank de Boer cannot stop Matthijs de Ligt from scooping the ball with his hand and getting sent off, but the coach can surely organise a side to have at least one shot on target against the Czech Republic.
Instead, De Boer watched on as his side fell apart completely after losing De Ligt, who looked as if he was the only leader on the pitch until his red card. Captain Gini Wijnaldum and Memphis Depay were invisible, while Frenkie de Jong decided to argue with anyone around. The most baffling moment of the game came when De Boer decided to switch out Donyell Malen for Quincy Promes. A substitution which has drawn comparisons to Dick Advocaat taking off Arjen Robben for Paul Bosvelt during the Oranje collapse to the Czech Republic at Euro 2004.
From the point Malen went off, Netherlands were done for. The players didn’t have a clue what to do, what positions they should be in and were chasing shadows. If the Czech’s had won 3/4-0 it wouldn’t have been a shock.
Straight after full-time the question has been whether or not De Boer would be sacked. A question there is still no answer to and we may be waiting a while.
De Boer’s appointment was the wrong one and everybody knew that as soon as he was confirmed as the replacement for Ronald Koeman. He has failed in his last three positions and he does not have the respect or tactical ability that his predecessor had.
The warning signs were there in the opening games under his tenure, and the loss to Turkey should have set alarm bells ringing at the KNVB. Those will have eased by the three group games won, but with the draw opening up favourably for them, Oranje crashed and burned against a Czech side that looked more hungry and determined.
The scrutiny of De Boer in the media has been fierce as expected and in most other top countries, the head coach would be walking by now. However, the KNVB doesn’t exactly have the best track record for making big decisions.
Eric Gudde, current director of the KNVB, is departing from the position soon and at the moment has stayed completely silent on De Boer. The silence from the top of the KNVB is deafening and it could be that we are heading for the World Cup with De Boer in charge and the 5-3-2 remaining.
Next up in September, Oranje face a crucial World Cup qualifier away in Norway. Do the KNVB really trust De Boer to pick the players up and guide them to Qatar next year? If the answer is yes then Oranje fans may need to prepare for a third missed major tournament out of four.
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Agreed. Worst Dutch performance I’ve ever witnessed at tournament, and sadly an accident waiting to happen right from the very beginning of Frank’s appointment.
I personally believe it’s time for a foreign manager. I’d love Wenger to be giving free reign of the team including working on youth development with the Dutch FA. Probably a mad dream!!
When does Gudde leave? And will his departure be enough to shake up the FA, or does it need to be a sweeping revolution?
All Oranje fans are very disappointed Holland had a chance to reach semi-finals with “little” coaching from de Boer and “some” concentration from the players but even this “minimum” didn’t happen. Another sad night and another sad tournment.
It was bad, but people have a short memory. 2006 vs Portugal was still worse. It was just ugly, disgusting play all around. 2012 tourney as a whole was also worse – granted a tougher group, but zero points and with much better players in the team.
This match was terrible from a tactical perspective (which is FDB’s fault) and many players were way underpar. But people are overreacting – red cards turn games, esp w half a match to go and that’s what happened here.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t big problems to be resolved and it doesn’t mean FDB should stay, but people need to chill out a bit.
Hi Bob
I respectfully disagree
Yes red card changes the game, but part of the games still! FDB response was to bring in Promes! That’s inexcusable. You pack the back line and wait for the counter. It ends nil nil or you score on the a break
Now almost every player except for Dumfries and Malen (bad miss) was subpar by a long long shot
They looked disjointed, broken, lacking shape, conviction and resolve
Sorry this was the worst in a long time
As I said before De Boer didn’t cause the Malen miss or the red card. The KNVB appointed DE Boer so blame them. But when are we just going to blame the players for failing. IMHO this was a player failure. Won all three group games but failed in this one. Football Oranje needs to accept it.
Oh, it’s Malen and de Ligt fault that we didn’t make a single shot on target whole game? Just stop already! It’s all de Boer fault like disaster against Turkey in WC Quals. Where is Turkey now? Wins against Macedonia or Ukraine won’t change that, he is a failure like KNVB from the beggining and we may lose another tournament if people like you say it’s players fault.
I believe Pepijn Linders would be perfect. Although, he doesn’t have a record with a big club, he has worked with Jurgen Klopp for years now and is an integral part of the coaching staff. This would be a good chance for him. He is young and can provide vision to the squad. We don’t need a big name, we need a new outlook.
You are right! Easy to find the scapegoat nobody wanted to begin with!
You all have valid points guys.
Remember though that it will be some time before the side can be a fraction of the good Oranje sides of the past. We don’t have superstars at this moment. Top skills combined with heart and a ‘never give up’ desire under a solid leadership is what is required. We sadly missed van Dijk, an ever-present midfield general (Wijnaldum too nice) and a striker that consistantly drives to the goal and scores, not just fancy flicks that work out 20% of the time.
Dumfries’ effort and drive was excellent; de Ligt, Malen and Weghorst unpolished, de Jong inconsistent.
The managerial role will be very hard to sort out. It may be time for a foreign coach. Too bad Koeman went for the glamour of Barcelona – we needed him to sacrifice for his country! What van Gaal did with the group he took to Brazil was fantastic, all things considered.
2006 and 2012 were worse than this, (but the draw to the final here will never be presented better!)
Can we pick ourselves up and qualify for Qatar??
Looks like De Boer didn’t have Contigency Plan for 1 man down scenario.
Only way is to tighten the defence and looks for Counter attack!
@Michael and @Bob
Understood that individual players have made individual mistakes. That’s recognised by most people including myself.
The point that this article is making, supported by many others including myself, is this tournaments failure, started long before Malen’s miss or De Ligts red card.
It started with Frank’s appointment and arguably before if you want to analyse the Dutch FA.
As an example, its not that Holland played 3-5-2 that is the problem, it is that Frank went into the group still learning and refining 3-5-2. If you are going to switch formation for a tournament, you best have that formation drilled and ready from day one.
Furthermore, team selection. Promes, De Roon, van Aanholt, Veltman and others have been given ample opportunities between different managers prior to de Boer’s arrival, and yet he failed to see that such players had nothing to offer and still choose to bring them to the tournament and give them important roles.
At some point the poor team selection, and unfamiliarity with the formation was going to be exposed. Yes, you can add that the Dutch were mentally weak, lacked leaders (especially when going down to 10 men), but well drilled cohesive team with an understand of its formation and objectives doesn’t fall apart like that in a major competition.
Decisions around formation and squad selection lay solely with the manager. Choice of the manager is the responsibility of the FA.
What a disaster!
The football was starting to look a bit easier on the eye during the group stage matches. Not exactly pretty, but, improving. I started to get my hopes up with the favorable draw. At first I thought that our 3 wins in the group were flattering, and just like others, I expected us to come undone against a better team. As it turns out, every team at the tournament is there for a reason – they are all strong, and they all got there by qualifying through their respective groups/play-offs. So, there are no “easy” matches. It’s the finals. Favorites France are knocked out now too. By Switzerland. Denmark and the Czechs are through to the quarter finals, one of them will be in the semi-finals! Who would have predicted that pre-tournament? Not me. As for my Oranje? I started to think we might progress a bit deeper with “ugly football”..just by virtue of a strong attack. But in the back of my mind I knew this team was not playing football properly. The team just hasn’t been functioning properly on the pitch. Those of you who watch all the Dutch games (friendlies, qualifiers etc) you know what I’m talking about. Something just isn’t right. And yes, de Boer has made some pretty odd decisions, and probably needs to be replaced. I think the most important and logical step now is to move away from the 5-3-2. Let’s get back to playing football with a bit of creativity in midfield. 4-3-3 please. Hopefully we qualify for the world cup, because man it was fun finally watching my team playing in a tournament again, after so long. Hup Holland!
Also,
Thanks so much Football Oranje for all your coverage!!! You guys are the best! Keep up the excellent work!
We have to be honest in that the group we got drawn into was easy and we played those three matches at home. I saw 3 wins coming since the draw was made (though many negative fans were saying we would not make it out of the group). However, I was weary of the knockout round, where the quality of opponent was always going to be much, much better than what we faced in the group stage, whether it was Portugal or Czech Republic.
Was the tournament a complete disaster? No, but Sunday sure was. Malen’s breakaway was the best opportunity we had to score and not getting a single shot on target for the first time at a major tournament is a relevant fact that shows just how bad the product was that we put on the pitch. Yes, red cards happen, but the tactics in response is up to the manager and Frank de Boer panicked. Plain and simple. A relatively young team at this level needs a manager to guide them, both tactically and mentally. Frank de Boer did nothing of the sort. With the talent we have and the bracket that emerged after the group stage, the semi-final was the least that could have been considered a success.
I am in favour of any formation or system that wins matches. Louis van Gaal used 5-3-2 in 2014 and we surpassed all expectations. We also had player buy-in and that simply did not happen this year. Frank changed what Ronald Koeman found success with in coaching this squad, so it was only natural that the players did not respond well to what was working being changed. It is time for Frank de Boer to go. It is also time for the KNVB to get over the stubbornness of needing a Dutch coach. We don’t have another Louis van Gaal so we need to find someone as smart elsewhere.
Whoever the next coach is, also needs to demand the players play with more passion. I hesitate to say the players lack work ethic. I don’t believe the players are not trying hard enough, but there was a clear difference watching some other teams play at this tournament. Too often Oranje appeared casual and just wanting their skill to run the opponent over. That works against Gibraltar in qualifying (not Turkey in qualifying), but not against teams who play with belief that they can knock us out of a tournament. It’s not a coincidence that we can count on one hand the number of knockout matches won in 90 minutes since Euro 2000. Oranje squads, aside from 2010 and 2014, do not typically raise their level of play in response to opponents doing it to us.
I want us to be able to be like Switzerland today, after being run off the park in the second half by France, they dug deep and turned it around to score two late goals. Or better yet, come out flying like Denmark and hammer an opponent you should hammer. Obviously Denmark has a purpose nobody else is playing for, but that doesn’t mean other teams can’t play as hard as they have their last 3 matches. We found that mentality under Koeman, but it disappeared under Frank de Boer.
KNVB is drowning with series of bad appointments. First Danny, then they knew Koeman would be gone if Barca calls, and yet he got appointed. Going on, rewarding the worst manager in football history with a mammoth task by bringing in De Boer.
Memphis Depay is probably the laziest player in the squad, looks like he is full of himself as the star of the team.
Van aanholt was struggling to get a first team spot in a subpar Crystal Palace team, yet he got the nod over Wijndal.
Biggest pain was abandoning the 433 which defeated Germany and France to a 532 which lost to Turkey, probably the worst team in euro2020.
de Boer failed tactically to address the complete shut down of the midfield two. If you get through 45 minutes where Frenkie and Wijnaldum have had no impact then you have to change it. Would love to see a few games with a midfield three of Gravenberch, de Jong and Koopmeiners.
Key to the lack of creativity in the squad is getting Ihattaren involved asap next international round.
Sack De Boer For many reasons
1- we all saw turkey in Euros a very below average team which i saw them a good competitive team when they scored 4 goals against us that showed me from the beginning that De boer Cant deal with any organized team and no personality at all
2-The KNVB saw a coach who made the worst start in the Pl and sacked after 4 months with inter milan and even didnt dominate the MLS so what the reason of appointment of him that he coached Ajax ???
3-We got a very easy group that deceived us that we got a good manager and a good team but we then get shocked with the reality of him
4-De Vrij know as the best middle defender in a 3 defense players in the world and you have de ligt who always play on the right and then you put de ligt in middle and de vrij on right and we know that De vrij can lead the back line as he is the most experienced CB we have
5-Couldnt deal with a pressure against Czech team and Totally messed up after the red card for me i would picked PVA and get Ake instead to balance the defense with blind get more advanced where he can excels and then get Berghuis instead of de roon and play like that with 10 men
Stek.
Dumfries(or Timber) Devrij Ake
Blind
Frenkie Wijnaldum
Berghuis Memphis Malen(or replace with weghorst and put memphis on the left)
That what an ordinary coach should have done but what i saw in someone totally unprofessional
Unfortunately there isn’t a good Dutch coach available now Ten hag cant leave Ajax now and peter Bos signed with lyon(i hoped he waited until Euros because i was sure that will happen) and van bommel also
Bringing a foreign Coach is not from Dutch Traditions but i think this time we will look for a foreign one because we have a tough group in the world cup qualifiers ahed of us and cant risk anymore trying an average Dutch coach
hope things get better next summer because i am very frustrated tbh
This is awfull I followed the Orange team since the 1988 tournement and that super team, since then lots of different failures and in so many ways- dramatic in the semifinals for how many times? 1992, 1998, 2000, 2014 and the final and then the wc final in 2010, but at least they were playing something, you had to feel for them though the dispair and the continuous feeling of imposibility and/or bad luck. And then came the disaster we don’t even count in big footbal, it is just the memories, the bw photos of the past. The players are not the problem, they were excelent with Koeman but he preffered to give awat the national for a club even if Barcelone, this is incomprehebsile in other countries where the national team is the greatest honour. And KNVB who appointed Blind or Frank de Boer and kept on backing them instead of their obvoius and predictable failure, against the evidence for everybody that there is no tactics, no ideeas of playing, just chaos. we see many teams with no big names or stars, but with the discipline of defending and 2-3 shots on target and a header they are avancing in the competion. It is not a very atractive footbal but Oranje doesn’t even have that. It is like the KNVB seeks for a long lasting failure of many generations.
When the dutch went down to 10 men if they had some sort of plan. Perhaps you would not have notice the difference straight away that they were a man short. But they panicked. Lost their shape and what about the leaders on the pitch the skipper, De Jong and Depay. The later gave up his responsibility in the second half and was virtually no where to be seen. Malen maybe could have come on in the second half as Frank said he would only give 60 minutes out of him. But this is all what if. Frank should step down. Maybe it is time for an overseas coach. The days of Overmars and Robben flying down the flanks seem a long way away.
Que sera sera.. Enough of this Czech game. Bitter pill to swallow again. Must again look forward. Bright spot for WC qualifying is hopefully Virgil is back. Hopefully Cillessen is back. And change Koopmeiners for de Room. Change Gakpo for van Aanholt.
As for coach, we need a more stern one.